CASEY RYAN: School Board Elections Matter Now More Than Ever

With President Donald Trump signing an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, more power will fall to state and local elected officials to determine the content that young children are exposed to in classrooms. This is especially true for district school board members who can determine the curricula taught to students and will likely now gain broader authority.

In most jurisdictions, school board members are elected officials who areresponsiblefor hiring administrators such as the superintendent, approving curricula for their students, creating policies and budgeting district funds. These school boards will now have more power as the Trump administration sends education back to the states. 

While this may worry those who support Trump using the Education Department (ED) to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from America’s schools, parents will have the definitive authority to eliminate woke ideology from their children’s classrooms by electing board members who will support and uphold their values and a belief in a proper education. 

Parents have successfully taken over school boards that previously promoted DEI and woke ideology throughout the country in recent years. Perhaps the greatest example is Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS). With help from grassroots organizations like Moms for Liberty and support from Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the local community electeda conservative majority to the school district’s board of education in 2022. 

Before this election, MDCPS openlypromotedcritical race theory and defended the idea of children transitioning to another gender. The district notably provided books to staff and students such as I Am Jazz and Jack (Not Jackie) that featured young transgender children in a positive manner.